


Matchmaker, Matchmaker (make me a match)

by magicandlight



Series: The States [56]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers, Statetalia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-24 05:27:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17094743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandlight/pseuds/magicandlight
Summary: They all have some strange urge to protect Alfred, even when they're children, even though Alfred is so much bigger and stronger than any of them.So naturally, they want Alfred to be happy.





	Matchmaker, Matchmaker (make me a match)

They all have some strange urge to protect Alfred, even when they're children, even though Alfred is so much bigger and stronger than any of them.

So naturally, they want Alfred to be happy.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

The colonies don't really understand, but they know enough. 

They know that the other-parent for more than half of them is England, that he's an empire and he takes care of America. 

They know that America names East for his queen and West for England himself, that Massachusetts has the same green eyes and America sometimes gets a far-away look when he looks at her. 

And they know, in the way that children know, that America is in love with England. 

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

They all ache with this war. 

It's almost over when the letter arrives, one with a familiar seal and they all crowd to look at it because  _hey, that's England's_. 

America pales as he reads it, and then he sits them down and explains. 

No one else can know about them because they would be at the mercy of empires, would become chess pieces in their wars, would be subject to their whims. 

The first time they see England, they understand. 

England is harsh and mean, and none of them can understand it because America is bright and golden and shining and it hurts them to hurt him,  _why doesn't it hurt England too_? 

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

"England is your nation-" America says, and Massachusetts interrupts him, with an accent that belongs in Boston with revolutionaries. "He is not."

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Then there is France.

"It's better than England," Scarlett says. She doesn't sound entirely sure. 

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

America never has the same look he had when he talked about England before the war again.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Other nations come and go. 

France comes and sells them Louisiana and they all keep their opinions to themselves. 

America explores the far north stretches of their territory with Russia for a while, and they hope, that maybe this one will be it. 

He isn't.

Years later, they split the country in two and wage a war amongst themselves and Europe merely sits back and watches as they ruin themselves.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Decades later, England comes to America to ask him to join Europe's war and the United States collectively bristles. 

The oldest ones still remember him sitting back and watching as the United States fractured, can still remember how the smell of burning clung to Alfred and Sera for months. 

What right does he have to ask them to go to war? 

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

They join the war anyway, eventually, so it doesn't matter much. 

They join it and the war ends, the other side unable to keep up with their soldiers who have not been bombed into exhaustion, who pour in and keep coming. (They have never fought a war like this. They do not want to ever do it again.)

When America comes back with a snarl, when he says they've chosen to act like cruel empires rather than modern nations and he won't be a part of the war they're going to start if they do this, they listen. 

They welcome isolationism with open arms. 

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

They ship supplies illegally, favor one side over the other, and yet they still don't expect the attack when it comes.

This time around, they wage war the way old nations do: without mercy. 

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

America comes out a superpower and none of them are quite sure what this means, whether it is a good or bad thing. They know that he is in a cold war, that the eyes of the world are fixed on him, and therefore they decide he needs to be protected. 

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

They watch the meetings from the security rooms just in case there's a fight- it'd only happened once before, but tensions were high from the cold war and they couldn't take chances.

Callie groans and thumps her head against the table. "They're all going to die of overexposure to sexual tension, why are they all like this?"

Riley just watches the security footage. "...does dad look lonely to you?"

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

It is a year and seven months after the end of the second world war when they hold their first secret state meeting in the middle of the night.

They pull out the giant world map and break out the markers and get to coloring. 

Magenta for previous hookups, gray for it's-not-going-to-happen, and pale pink for love interests. 

♡♡♡♡

There's a pretty good amount of magenta by the time they finish and they all step back to look at the map

"Oh my god, Dad's a ho." Leo mutters. 

None of them can really disagree.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

England calls America a string of curse words and Adam takes a pair of scissors to the map. 

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

They shove Alfred towards other nations. They can't intervene as much as they like, but they can exchange plane tickets for later dates and get Alfred to wear something nice to a business dinner and on one memorable occasion, trip a nation right into his arms.

None of it works. 

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Russia finds out, and they have a secret state meeting in the middle of the night. 

"Absolutely not." Cassidy hisses out. "We are not even going to  _attempt_  this."

Brooke's hand freezes from where she was reaching for the pink-love-interest marker. 

Del puts her head in her hands. "Brooke, really?  _This_ where you chose to throw your lot in?"

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

"Hey, guys, I think I'm gonna try and get Belarus back on her feet, so I might not be around as much."

America misreads their expressions. "Hey, she's not as bad as they say she is."

♡♡♡♡

That night, Tyler throws a marker across the room. "Since when is  _Belarus_ even an _option_?" 

Mindy beams. "She ice skates! And gymnastics!"

"Sounds like you're more interested in her than Dad is." Caitlin says in a sing-song voice, and Mindy flushes. 

"That's- that's not true!"

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

It's after Thanksgiving when Lithuania is flitting around trying to clean up (as if any of them would let him) that they realize.

♡♡♡♡

"Lithuania?" James suggests thoughtfully.

Ginny taps her pen. "That could work. All in favor?"

♡♡♡♡

(A month later finds the meeting back in session.

Aidan's arms are crossed. "Of course he's got something going on with Poland already."

Charlie scribbles over Poland and Lithuania on the map in gray marker.)

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

"Is Prussia an option?"

" _No._ "

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Drew pauses. "Wait, Germany and Italy are a thing?"

Evangeline gives him a look like he just asked her what the alphabet started with. "Yeah?"

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Cam grins, and it looks slightly manic, but that's probably because it's three in the morning. "Well, good news: we now have a functioning flow chart of Europe's relationships. Slightly less good news: it's just as disturbing as we thought it would be." He sighed. "Bad news: Um, two-thirds of the map is gray."

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

It's Evangeline who catches the look America gives England and recognizes it for what it is. 

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

" _England isn't even on The Map anymore!_ "

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

"So, um, England." Helena begins at their next meeting, and is answered by various groans. 

♡♡♡♡

"We can't interfere." Charlie declares. "Because somebody-" she shot an accusing look at the Originals. Del flashed a peace sign at her. "Would sabotage anything we did, and then it would be worse."

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Then it is years later, and they aren't secret: the world  _knows_.

"We're not secret." Evangeline muses. "That means we're not confined to subtlety anymore."

She grins and the United States as a whole pays attention. "So here's what we're going to do."

**Author's Note:**

> ♡ title from the Fiddler on the Roof's Matchmaker  
> ♡ this is supposed to have a sequel, which i wanted to have done by tomorrow, but life happened and i don't think it's possible anymore. for those of you who read the original sometimes united states, this is going to lead into a rewritten mistletoe scene  
> ♡ yeah. USUK's gonna be a thing, but it's not gonna become a main focus of the story or anything


End file.
